Following Rosetown (2018), Flora makes summer memories with her friends while dealing with more changes in her small town.
It’s 1973 in Rosetown, Indiana, and Flora Smallwood has survived fourth grade and a year of significant changes. Now it’s August, and Flora and her friends have been busy. Her parents opened a new print shop, and Flora’s been helping there ever since school ended. Yury, a Ukrainian immigrant and her newest friend, has been taking his puppy to obedience training, and Nessy, her longtime friend, has been busy with piano lessons and her pet canary. Everything is excellent in Rosetown, but more change looms as Flora learns that Miss Meriwether, owner of Flora’s beloved bookstore, Wings and a Chair Used Books, may move away to Montana. The bookstore is where she and Yury built their friendship, finding respite and relief from the changes in their lives. As summer comes to an end, Flora makes fun memories with her friends, family, and community and learns to take each change in stride. In Rylant’s sensitive, fluid third-person narrative, Flora expresses the thoughts and feelings of an introverted child. This sequel has the same quaint feel as its predecessor, giving a deeper look into this small town’s simple way of life. The book assumes a White default.
A gentle, pleasant daily-life narrative. (Historical fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: June 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-9471-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY | CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION
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For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share. (Memoir/poetry. 8-12)
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A multiaward–winning author recalls her childhood and the joy of becoming a writer.
Writing in free verse, Woodson starts with her 1963 birth in Ohio during the civil rights movement, when America is “a country caught / / between Black and White.” But while evoking names such as Malcolm, Martin, James, Rosa and Ruby, her story is also one of family: her father’s people in Ohio and her mother’s people in South Carolina. Moving south to live with her maternal grandmother, she is in a world of sweet peas and collards, getting her hair straightened and avoiding segregated stores with her grandmother. As the writer inside slowly grows, she listens to family stories and fills her days and evenings as a Jehovah’s Witness, activities that continue after a move to Brooklyn to reunite with her mother. The gift of a composition notebook, the experience of reading John Steptoe’s Stevie and Langston Hughes’ poetry, and seeing letters turn into words and words into thoughts all reinforce her conviction that “[W]ords are my brilliance.” Woodson cherishes her memories and shares them with a graceful lyricism; her lovingly wrought vignettes of country and city streets will linger long after the page is turned.
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share. (Memoir/poetry. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-25251-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
Categories: CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s a monster in Sidwell, Massachusetts, that can only be seen at night or, as Twig reveals, if passersby are near her house.
It’s her older brother, James, born with wings just like every male in the Fowler line for the last 200 years. They were cursed by the Witch of Sidwell, left brokenhearted by their forebear Lowell Fowler. Twig and James are tired of the secret and self-imposed isolation. Lonely Twig narrates, bringing the small town and its characters to life, intertwining events present and past, and describing the effects of the spell on her fractured family’s daily life. Longing for some normalcy and companionship, she befriends new-neighbor Julia while James falls in love with Julia’s sister, Agate—only to learn they are descendants of the Witch. James and Agate seem as star-crossed as their ancestors, especially when the townspeople attribute a spate of petty thefts and graffiti protesting the development of the woods to the monster and launch a hunt. The mix of romance and magic is irresistible and the tension, compelling. With the help of friends and through a series of self-realizations and discoveries, Twig grows more self-assured. She is certain she knows how to change the curse. In so doing, Twig not only changes James’ fate, but her own, for the first time feeling the fullness of family, friends and hope for the future.
Enchanting. (Magical realism. 9-12)Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-38958-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
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